Taxane chemotherapy induces stromal injury that leads to breast cancer dormancy escape
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September 16, 2023Primary Author: Ramya Ganesan
PLoS Biol. 2023 Sep 12;21(9):e3002275. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002275. eCollection 2023 Sep.
ABSTRACT
A major cause of cancer recurrence following chemotherapy is cancer dormancy escape. Taxane-based chemotherapy is standard of care in breast cancer treatment aimed at killing proliferating cancer cells. Here, we demonstrate that docetaxel injures stromal cells, which release protumor cytokines, IL-6 and granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), that in turn invoke dormant cancer outgrowth both in vitro and in vivo. Single-cell transcriptomics shows a reprogramming of awakened cancer cells including several survival cues such as stemness, chemoresistance in a tumor stromal organoid (TSO) model, as well as an altered tumor microenvironment (TME) with augmented protumor immune signaling in a syngeneic mouse breast cancer model. IL-6 plays a role in cancer cell proliferation, whereas G-CSF mediates tumor immunosuppression. Pathways and differential expression analyses confirmed MEK as the key regulatory molecule in cancer cell outgrowth and survival. Antibody targeting of protumor cytokines (IL-6, G-CSF) or inhibition of cytokine signaling via MEK/ERK pathway using selumetinib prior to docetaxel treatment prevented cancer dormancy outgrowth suggesting a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent cancer recurrence.
PMID:37699010 | PMC:PMC10497165 | DOI:10.1371/journal.pbio.3002275
